The AEX
Client: Personal project
Role: Concept, art direction, graphic and motion design
Media: Digital, AR and metaverse
Date: 2023
In predicting future scenarios, insights into evolving mass-adoption technologies guide our vision of society in a decade, encompassing economic trends, climate shifts, and societal activism. Foreseeing a rise in social unrest, exacerbated by economic struggles, wealth gaps, societal divisions, and climate challenges, a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) called AEX emerges with a mission to foster societal justice. Operating within the metaverse, AEX members engage in widespread coordination of activist endeavors, gaining recognition and incentives within this virtual realm. Reflecting the fusion of digital and physical realms, the brand utilizes novel assets to establish its identity, emphasizing animation, interaction, and hyper-customization. Grounded in mathematical principles of fairness and rationality, AEX pursues genuine inclusivity and equality across all its endeavors.
"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
Martin Luther King Jr.
SOCIETY IN 2023
Activists rely on new technologies. Social unrest leads people to constant protest, looking for innovative ways to make their demands and voices heard. •
Climate change refugees. By 2030, 92% of all countries will experience “extremely hot” weather every other year due mainly to greenhouse gas pollution. •
The world economy is fragile.
The displacement of labor by AI and robotics affects significantly the world’s workforce. Most countries struggle to regulate wealth distribution, recurring to efforts in universal basic income. •
The metaverse is fully matured, with the major participation of Gen Z and Gen Alpha. People socialize through deeply interactive platforms, with the freedom to assume new identities as a digital presence is just as significant as physical. •
TECHNOLOGY IN 2033
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are legally recognized in most countries, allowing millions of organizations to be run by community governance, even anonymously. •
Augmented Reality reaches mass adoption, thanks to the development of AR glasses, smartphones, and projection technologies.
Geospatial and Visual Positioning Systems development allows for deeper integration between physical and digital spaces. •
AI begins a cybersecurity race against hackers. AI tools like Large Language Models facilitate the creation of malicious code and security breaches. •
THE AEX
Cyber-activism Organization
Based on a DAO, the AEX is a cyber-activism organization dedicated to punishing companies and individuals responsible for direct harm to the environment and human rights. Companies being non-sustainable is no longer an excuse, sexism, racism, xenophobia, any form of discrimination, unethical treatment of animals, data abuse, or any sort of human injustice, can’t be tolerated in an already delicate society.
The AEX operates in anonymity on the Web3. Its organizers are unknown and unreachable in the physical world but hold strategic power to move a whole mass of supporters internationally, with a track record of forcing companies to compensate for their injustices or go to total ruin.
The AEX community has immense hacking, intelligence, and computational power. It’s believed powerful contributors are behind it and rumored it gets resources out of questionable practices.
Known for its tactics using digital vandalism, the AEX spreads its ideology through marketing-like strategies. Their followers inhabit traditional digital communities, but their proprietary metaverse is their main hub, with over 8 million active members. Using blockchain and NFTs, the members’ digital identities are validated and placed in a complex structure of roles. Members are recognized from small actions, like participating in protests, to big ones like coding malware to attack big companies. They get ranked based on their contributions “influence points” for changing the world.
VALUES
Justice
Rationality
Precision
Inexorability
Accountability
THE CODE OF CONDUCT
We never hurt innocent lives.
We only enact justice when guilt is fully proven.
We are fair. Punishment must be just.
An eye for an eye.
We avoid collateral damage.
We believe respect is fluid.
We use any required means to make justices, as long as it doesn’t break our code of conduct.
We are independent from any political ideology, economic interest, religion or social group.
We are publicly accountable for our actions.
We make decisions collectively.
We punish our own when misbehave.
We attack companies as companies, people as people.
A SYMBOL MADE OF SYMBOLS
∀ _ For all (universal quantifier)
∃ _ There exists (existential quantifier)
x _ Variable (unknown value)
For all injustice,
there exists retribution.
For all humanity,
there exists fairness.
The name of the organization is made of math symbols, a common language that goes beyond most cultural barriers. It’s inspired by the values of inclusion and equality, based on rationality and logic.
VISUAL IDENTITY
The AEX identity has become widely recognized by its procedurally generated patterns based on rectangles and triangles and an off-black / off-white palette. AEX Face is their custom-made variable typeface with over a eight parameters including: serif length, x-height and stroke contrast.
Being a highly digital brand, animation is a key brand asset for them. The opposing peaks curve is their characteristic animation curve applied to many of its assets.
VISUAL ELEMENTS
PROCEDURAL PATTERNS
COLOR PALETTE
ANIMATION CURVES
”OPPOSING PEAKS”
AR LOGO
Mass adoption of AR has allowed a new set of possible brand assets.
The AEX logo interaction is scripted. Once a fixed look is detected for 3 seconds, a custom generative animation plays out of the logo.
The brand designer
The AEX identity quickly became iconic in the design community. People often guess about its creators, although they have never been confirmed.
METAVERSE
Role-based community
Users increases their rank by doing activist actions or contributing to the AEX operations. It has become a source of social validation, either on or offline. With over 8 million active members across 32 countries.
The log
A public record of the activist actions done by each member. It’s a sort of feed that keeps members updated and engaged. Users profiles display a detailed list of their actions and influence.
Users’ avatars
Members’ highly customizable avatars constitute their online identities, equivalent to their digital bodies.
NFTs appearance
Avatar features and apparel are one of a kind, made by digital designers on demand or request. Avatar creators are an emerging profession.
Leaders
Now legends. Their high anonymity and genius demeanor have led many to question if the founders are even human, or possibly AI orchestrating the whole movement towards social change.
ACTIVIST ACTIONS
Media silencing
Every person shall be liable for committing any injustice or disrespect. Media hacks and digital bombing seek to diminish their reach on any platform. Silencing is a way of depriving the unjust of their platforms, and thus nullifying the weight of their harmful narratives.
AR SITES INTERVENTIONS
As punishment. Some common tactics focus on intervening brands’ physical assets. Storefronts, product packaging, and advertisements are highjacked to either silence or corrupt a brand’s reputation.
As art. Artists in the AEX make digital AR murals spreading the values and support for social and environmental causes.
AEX APPROVED
Partner brands can benefit greatly from the AEX endorsement, but they have to comply with a robust auditing process.
The Ocean Cleanup as an NGO developed and scaled technologies to rid the oceans of plastic and other contaminants.
Patagonia, in the mid-2020’s, accelerated its R&D, reaching important advances in sustainable materials and upcycling processes.